Performance and results management

In Q2 2022, CGIAR’s new Technical Reporting Arrangement was co-developed with members of the System Council’s Strategic Impact Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (SIMEC). It describes the content, timing, format, standards and scope of Technical Reporting applicable to all CGIAR Initiatives. The Technical Reporting Arrangement splits Technical Reporting into three categories:

1. Type 1: Annual Initiative and Impact Area Platform reporting on progress towards end-of-Initiative outcomes.
2. Type 2: Three-year Portfolio-level reporting on contribution to Action Area outcomes and Impact Area targets (the first year for this category of reporting will be 2024).
3. Type 3: Annual internal Performance Management and Project Coordination Practice Change report.

In rolling out the new Technical Reporting Arrangement, CGIAR billed the 2022 version as the “first pancake” – essentially a trial run that serves to prepare the ground for subsequent improved versions. For each key component of Technical Reporting, CGIAR aimed to achieve minimum viable functionality in 2022, with improvement and functionality growth planned annually from 2023 onwards.

The 2022 version of the Type 1 Annual Initiative and Impact Area Platform report on progress towards end-of-Initiative outcomes aimed to include the following core components:

1. Use of a common template: All Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms will use a common template aligned to the content in the Technical Reporting Arrangement (note that the Impact Area Platform template is derived from the Initiative template and adapted to suit their needs).
   a. Status: This objective has largely been achieved, with all Initiatives using the same template, and the Impact Area Platforms using a standard template derived from the Initiative version.
2. Use of a common Results Framework: CGIAR’s Results Framework is directly aligned to the five Impact Areas and Sustainable Development Goals. Three distinct result types – outputs, outcomes and impacts – are mapped to the spheres of control, influence and interest, respectively. Common results and indicator categories within output and outcome levels allow aggregation of core impact pathway metrics across Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms. All Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms will report against the common framework.
   a. Status: This objective has largely been achieved, with all Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms reporting results against the CGIAR Results Framework.
3. Results linked to the Theory of Change: Initiative results will be digitally linked to their nested Initiative and Work Package Theories of Change.
   a. Status: This objective has largely been achieved with online Initiative Theories of Change linked to reported results.
4. Quality assurance of reported results data: Reported data will be screened against defined criteria and adjusted as necessary to ensure every reported result meets quality criteria. In case of significant disagreement between the reporting Initiative and the Quality Assurance Team, a senior third party will provide a “tie-breaker” function.
   a. Status: This objective has largely been achieved with key data points undergoing quality assurance, mediated through a third-party tie breaker.
5. Access to reported results through an interactive dashboard: A new results dashboard will provide easy and customizable access to CGIAR results.
   a. Status: This objective has been achieved and the new Results Dashboard is available here.
6. Baking in adaptive management: All Initiatives and Impact Area Platforms will include a “Reflect” adaptive management process to inform their 2023 Plan of Results and Budget.
   a. Status: This objective has largely been achieved.
7. Rollout of Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness: All Initiatives will start implementing their Innovation Packages and Scaling Readiness plans.
   a. Status: This objective has been achieved.
8. A new Performance and Results Management System (PRMS): A new PRMS will house relevant Initiative and Impact Area Platform information including Theories of Change, Plans of Results and Budget, and reported results.
   a. Status: This objective has been achieved.

Header photo: Potato harvest in Beora, a small farming community in Rupandehi District, Nepal. Photo by N. Palmer/CIAT